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Archer's Goon
Howard comes home from school to find a very large man called the Goon in the kitchen; the Goon refuses to leave until Howard's father, Quentin, gives him two thousand words. Shortly thereafter, Quentin refuses to write *any* words, and Howard, his mother, and his sister are in the middle of a battle of wills that has profoundly amusing as well as important effects. By the end of it, Howard and his family have learned a lot about the true government of...Cart and Cwidder - Dalemark Quartet 1
Cart and Cwidder tells the story of a family of singers: Clennen, the larger-than-life lead singer and father, Lenina, the cool, calm highborn mother, Dagner, the talented but shy eldest son, Brid, the impetuous, talkative daughter and Moril, the dreamy youngest son. The family is happy enough, traveling around the country between North and South boundaries, performing for various towns and villages along the way. But when they take on a traveler, Kialan...Castle in the Air
Abdullah is a carpet merchant in the city of Zanzib. In between buying and selling his carpets he daydreams. Then one day he buys a magic carpet. To keep the carpet safe he sleeps on top of it. In the middle of the night he wakes up in a garden, just like the one in his dreams. When he meets a beautiful princess, he assumes he must still be dreaming. But when Princess Flower in the Night mistakes him for a woman, which is most certainly not a part ...Charmed Life
Cat has always lived in the shadow of his sister Gwendolen. A witch with a lot of power, Gwendolen feels she can rule the world. When the two of them are taken to Crestomanci Castle, and Gwendolen is not treated with enough respect, she swears revenge on the owner of the castle.
After a while though, she goes away to another world, and Cat is left with a girl named Janet, a girl he must help act like Gwendolen so that no one will suspect anything. ...

Wynne-Jones booklist

Deep Secret
Rupert Venables is a Magid (human magician), the youngest of three magic-working brothers. There are many Magids throughout the multiverse. Their task seems to be that of guiding the worlds in the right direction without too much overt action. Every time one dies, another must be trained in his/her place. Earth is one of the Naywards worlds (i.e. not very accepting of magic) and the whole multiverse is tending Naywards. That's a problem. The Koryfonic Em...Dogsbody
What if all the stars, moons, and suns in the heavens were inhabited by gods? Diana Wynne Jones answers that question in this fictional novel when she introduces reader to Sirius, the temperamental god of the Dog Star, who is framed for a murder he did not commit. As punishment, his powers are removed and he is sentenced to live the life of a dog on Earth. Once there, he is raised by a kind Irish girl and he tries protecting her from English bigots. ...Drowned Ammet - Dalemark Quartet 2
Mitt is a little boy who lives in a place called Dalemark, Holand. Mitt and his family cannot afford to pay the rent for their farm anymore because the owner, mean Earl Hadd, has doubled their rent.
They get kicked out of their farm and move into the city. Mitt's father joins a resistance group against Earl Hadd called the Free Holanders. One day, Mitt's father disappears while at work with the Free Holanders.
Mitt and his family are convinced tha...Eight Days of Luke
David's parents are dead, and he lives with his extremely odious relatives - that is, when he isn't at boarding school. This holiday season his relatives are being more horrid than usual, and David seems doomed to a miserable time, until he meets Luke. There's something odd about Luke - he appears and disappears with ease, he can wrap anybody (even David's horrible relations) around his finger, and he can kindle fire at will. But he's great fun to be ...Fire and Hemlock
Two people write stories and when they find out their stories are coming true, their love is tested to the limit. Polly is a little girl who runs into a funeral at a mansion when she is playing with her friend. She meets a man there named Thomas Lynn. Thomas needs Polly's help in selecting six pictures from a stack. One of the photos is called Fire and Hemlock, which he lets her keep so she can always remember him. Thomas and
Polly continue their fri...Hexwood
The person responsible for overseeing Earth, gets an alert that a powerful machine named Bannus has been turned on. He informs the 5 people who run the galaxy, the Reigners, about Bannus.
In London, a teenage girl named Ann Stavely notices something strange going on at the Hexwood Farm next door. People keep going in but not coming out. Ann wants to find out what's going on at the Hexwood Farm.
She begins to investigate the woods near the Hexwood...

Diana Wynne Jones list of books

House of Many Ways
Charmaine house sits for her Great Uncle's magical house, discovers a plot to overthrow the kingdom and finds the royal Elf gift that has been lost for many generations. Charmaine Baker is a young girl who loves to read so much she often doesn't do anything else. Her parents think it might be time to stop spoiling her and force her to do some practical work for once. She is asked to house sit for her great Uncle William, a wizard who will be traveling to...Howl's Moving Castle
After getting cursed, Sophie decides to make her future what she wants it to be. The eldest of three daughters, Sophie has to find her lot in life after being struck down with a curse from the evil Witch of the Waste. She does this by abandoning the hat shop in which she made beautiful, enchanted hats for free "as an apprentice" for her step-mother (who was getting rich off of her hats) and traversing the world.
As a sort of introduction: Sophie's fa...The Crown of Dalemark
A new person must fill the throne of Dalemark, and the person who finds the crown of Dalemark will get the throne. Mitt is a man who is searching for someone to fill the throne of Dalemark. The throne of Dalemark has been empty for two centuries.
A girl named Maewen goes back in time through the assistance of special powers to help find someone to fill the throne of Dalemark. There is a soon-to-be queen named Noreth that looks identical to Maewen. Wh...The Homeward Bounders
A twelve-year-old boy named Jamie uncovers a world where spiritual entities are playing a board game with the world. They are controlling situations with people like it's a game. The consequence of discovering the secret world is that Jamie must become a Homeward Bounder. He is forced to become a Homeward Bounder by the spiritual entities that play the game. A Homeward Bounder is a person who must travel from dimension to dimension till the day that he ...The Lives of Christopher Chant
Christopher was just an ordinary boy with an ordinary life. Until he finds out that he has not only one, but nine of them! Forced away from school to live in a castle with a lot of boring people, Christopher is told he will have to be the next Chrestomanci (someone who controls magical misuse in the world) when he grows up. Miserable, he looks to his travels in other worlds as an escape....The Magicians of Caprona
Two rival families of magical decent fight it out for obvious superiority in 19th Century Italy, so when Chrestomanci tries to warn them about a powerful new enchanter in the city they naturally blame each other even when children from both families are kidnapped. ...

Diana Wynne Jones novels

The Ogre Downstairs
Casper, Johnny, and Gwinny have gotten a new stepfather who is an absolute Ogre. He's easily annoyed, he bosses them around, he favors his own children (Douglas and Malcolm) - he's everything a parent should not be. When he gives Malcolm and Johnny chemistry sets, they rapidly discover the chemicals aren't quite normal; properly mixed, they can cause flight, invisibility, animation, and a host of other effects. As the two sets of siblings battle for c...Witch Week
Taking place in another alternate world, this society is exactly like the world of Chrestomanci--except they burn witches. Several students at a boarding school discover that themselves are witches, and struggle to keep their identity a secret. When an inquisitor comes to the school to take away witches to be burned, they flee. When they are given a spell to summon Chrestomanci, he is astonished that the world is so similar to his, yet still persecute...